RTO-II Karachi July collection up 42pc

KARACHI: Regional Tax Office (RTO) – II Karachi has posted 42 percent growth in revenue collection in July 2020 owing to resumption of economic activities after the government eases the lockdown, officials said on Tuesday.

Sources said the RTO collected Rs10.134 billion in the first month of current fiscal year as compared with Rs7.12 billion in the corresponding month of the last fiscal year. The tax office also surpassed the assigned target of Rs9 billion for the month by 12.5 percent.

The significant growth in revenue collection has been attributed to the resurgence in economic activities during July 2020 after months of economic slowdown due to COVID-19 led lockdown, which had made the tax collection a big challenge.

According to a statement issued by the tax office the credit for this improved performance also goes to the strategy drawn by the Chief Commissioner RTO-II Karachi and the team during the month of June 2020 that helped reap the benefits in the very first month of fiscal year 2020/2021.

The sources said the RTO-II Karachi focused on major revenue spinners like vigilant real time monitoring of withholding tax, sales tax, and timely disposal of audit cases. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), in a major policy shift, has assigned monthly, quarterly, and annual targets to all RTOs and Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) at the beginning of the current fiscal year departing from the practice of assigning separate monthly targets each month, which were received by RTOs/LTUs by around 10th of every month.

“The new practice has helped the tax offices to plan and strategise ahead for achievement of overall revenue target instead of doing the same in piecemeal,” it said. The sources said the RTO-II Karachi was confident in achieving quarterly and annual targets following the significant growth in the very first month of the current fiscal year.